CLEVELAND, Ohio — The truck that left Progressive Field for Arizona this week carried the usual spring training essentials — baseballs, water bottles, and players’ golf clubs. But it also departed Cleveland carrying something far more precious: the certainty that José Ramírez, the heart and soul of the Guardians, will remain in with the club through 2032.
In a stunning move that reverses modern baseball’s free agency playbook, Ramírez has secured a seven-year, $175 million extension with $70 million deferred. The deal was made official Thursday with Ramírez, Guardians owner Paul Dolan and president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti fielding questions from reporters on the historic pact.
What makes this deal extraordinary isn’t just the numbers — it’s that Ramírez himself drove the negotiation process, despite having three full years remaining on his previous contract.
“This is a contract that really cements José Ramírez as a rare one player for one team his whole career. You just don’t see that very often anymore,” said Paul Hoynes, cleveland.com’s veteran Guardians reporter, capturing the uniqueness of Ramírez’s commitment.
The timing of this extension defies conventional player wisdom. Most superstars guard their ability to test free agency waters, where bidding wars typically add tens of millions to their paydays. Ramírez has done the opposite, actively seeking security in Cleveland rather than maximizing his earning potential.
“Cleveland is home and Cleveland is where he wants to finish his career. He only ever wants to put one jersey on his back, and that’s why they got the deal done. It was Jose who really drove it,” Joe Noga explained on the Cleveland Baseball Talk Podcast.
Ramírez’s loyalty stands in stark contrast to the lip service other stars typically pay to their current cities.
“How many times have we heard players say, ‘Oh, we’d love to stay here,’” Hoynes noted. “On the first chance they get, when free agency beckons, they’re gone. Jose is a guy that really means it.”
What makes this even more remarkable is that Ramírez seems fully aware of what he’s giving up. During the contract announcement, he acknowledged through interpreter Agustin Rivero that he understands “the restrictions we have in this market” and “what we can and can’t do.” He’s not staying in Cleveland with blinders on — he’s staying despite fully comprehending the financial realities.
The Dominican star has even adopted the city as part of his identity, telling reporters he feels “50% Dominican, 50% Clevelander.”
For the Guardians, this represents the largest contract in franchise history. While Paul Dolan has often been criticized for tight spending, the organization made an exception for Ramírez, recognizing his special status not just as an elite player, but as someone who embodies the city’s blue-collar ethos.
“Paul Dolan was effusive in his praise of Ramirez,” Noga reported, adding that the owner discussed “the relationship that Jose has with the fans and the community and how Guardians fans project themselves onto Jose.”
While questions remain about how Ramírez will perform in the latter years of the contract — he’ll be 39 when it concludes — the Guardians are betting on his exceptional work ethic and toughness.
Want to hear more about this historic deal and what it means for Cleveland’s future? Listen to the full episode of the Cleveland Baseball Talk Podcast for deeper insights into the contract that will define the franchise for the next decade.
Read the automated transcript of today’s podcast below. Because it’s an AI-generated transcript, it may contain errors and misspellings.
Podcast Transcript
Joe Noga: Welcome back to the Cleveland Baseball Talk Podcast. I’m Joe Noga, joined by Paul Hoynes. Hoynsie, big day down at the ballpark. Still cold and chilly outside, but they’re loading up the trucks. We were on the loading dock talking to Brandon Biller, Tony Amato, Scotty Anderson and all the guys in the clubhouse who are loading equipment and uniforms and baseballs and water jugs and all sorts of stuff on the truck. But then we took a trip down the hall and an even bigger moment basically in the franchise’s history as Jose Ramirez signs his new contract. Contract that’s going to keep him in Cleveland through 2032. $75 million extension, as reported earlier. And really, you know, it’s a big moment when Paul Dolan, Chris Antonetti and Jose Ramirez are, are sort of up on the dais answering questions. That’s. That. That’s not your typical contract signing when those guys are up there answering questions.
Paul Hoynes: No, that’s for sure, Joe. Big moment in franchise history. It’s the biggest contract they’ve ever given a player, I guess contract extension, as you said, seven years, 175 million with 70 million deferred. This is a contract that, you know, really cements Jose Ramirez as a rare player for one team his whole career. And you just don’t see that very often anymore. It just shows you the importance he mean what he means to the franchise and what the franchise and the city of Cleveland mean to Ramirez. Because, Joe, from all indications, he’s been his agent, Rafi Nieves have been pushing for this extension for over a year.
Joe Noga: Yeah, that’s what we found out just in talking to Chris Antonetti and Paul Dolan as they sat there. You know, we asked who, who approached who first about this because there was really no urgency to get this deal done. Have three years remaining on that deal that he signed in 2022. That was historic in itself in the, in, in the first time that he, he signed, you know, for them to, to go back and just basically tear up the last three years of that deal, rework things and offer the deferred money and for, for Jose to accept that and, and insist that, you know, Cleveland is home and Cleveland is where he wants to finish his career. He only ever wants to put one jersey on his back and, and that they got that done. They got that deal done because it was Jose who really drove that. Yeah, they didn’t have to get anything done at this point, but I guess there’s a pretty good feeling out there that they do have that done. And, you know, Jose even mentioned that while he was talking through the club interpreter, Augie Rivera, he talked about how now, this is something that you don’t have to have, you know, sort of playing in the back of your mind as you go into the next two or three years, that it’s all taken care of and you can just go out there and play baseball.
Paul Hoynes: It’s. It’s a little strange to hear a veteran guy like that talk like that. As you pointed out, he has, he had three years left on his deal. He’s. He’s going to play at 33 years old, so he’s been around the block. But I think it just goes to show you that when he says he loves Cleveland, he’s being truthful. How many times have we heard players say, oh, we’d love to stay here, Joe, you and I have heard players say, one player after another, oh, I’d love to stay here. I love to love the town, love the fans. On the first chance they get, when free agency beckons, they’re gone. Jose is a guy that really means it. And not only that, him and the organization have kind of reinforced that with this deal. Obviously come to terms on this, because this isn’t like the guardians. They don’t do these kind of contracts, but they certainly made an exception for Ramirez.
Joe Noga: So I found it really interesting, just going back to, to the very beginning, Jose was asked a lot of questions about, you know, when was the first time you thought of spending your entire career in Cleveland or when did you realize that this is what you wanted to do? And he said, you know, right from the very beginning, and, and Chris Antonetti sort of backed it up. They said, you know, from the very start, when this kid came along, as they selected him in the, the international draft and, and developed him and, and brought him to the big leagues, there’s been only one thought on his mind, and that’s playing his entire career in Cleveland. Like you said, that’s, that’s a rare thing because nowadays with the, the way the system is set up, most guys can’t wait to get their six years under their belt so they can go out there and test the free agent market. And this was something that was never appealing to, to Jose Ramirez or something that he wanted to do. He had his sights set on, on exactly what he’s accomplishing.
Paul Hoynes: Yeah, it was interesting to hear him say that. You know, as a young kid growing up in the Dominican, it sounded. I don’t know if I got the whole thing, Joe. But it sounded like, you know, he had been turned other teams when he went to try out camps, you know, and, and you know, Jose is not a big guy and he was, you know, he’s, he’s filled out now. He’s, you know, he’s, he looks to be in great shape, you know, around 100, maybe 2, 200 pounds. But I can imagine when he was 16, 15 or 16 years old, that you’ve got a little, you know, 5, 7 kid that probably weighs 130 pounds trying to convince an organization to sign him. And it sounded to me at least like he’d been turned on by, by a few teams before the Guardians slash, Indians gave him a chance. And he remembered that.
Joe Noga: Yeah. And it, it really does seem like the, the effort that Cleveland made to, to sort of put their faith in him, especially early in his career, early in the process, is being rewarded tenfold through Jose Ramirez. And not just the player that he has become, but the, the figure that he is now with the, with the club, with the organization in terms of his community involvement and his ability to turn around and develop young players and help the young players on the roster. They got the total package in Jose by sticking it out and sort of putting their faith in him. And that’s what’s reflected in this deal. We heard a name mentioned in this process, you know, as they were negotiating the deal. Obviously, a contract of this magnitude involves the ownership in a lot of ways, and you have to, every move forward, you have to get Paul Dolan’s approval. And we heard David Blitzer’s name also mentioned in this. Chris Antonetti said Dolan and Blitzer were both involved intimately with the negotiation process. So, you know, that’s the first time we’ve really heard that David Blitzer’s had his hand in any of this. What do you think that says or what message does that send for the future now?
Paul Hoynes: Yeah, you know, I would imagine that, you know, when Blitzer became a minority owner of, with the, with Paul Dolan in the Guardians, he had a. Option to, you know, purchase the majority share of the club, I believe, what, in 2028, you know, he may, and he, that may be, you know, the wheels may be moving for that to happen. You know, he may inherit this contract. So as a majority owner. So, you know, I, I guess he, he would have to be involved in it.
Joe Noga: Yeah. And, and that’s, it doesn’t really sort of give us any sort of definite timeline or anything like that, but to know that that’s out there and that the process is moving forward. It, it, it’s something to keep an eye on and, and, But Paul Dolan was, again, very effusive in his praise of Jose Ramirez. You know, talked about the, the relationship that Jose has with the fans and the community and how sort of the guardians fans reflect and sort of project themselves onto Jose. They sort of see themselves in Jose on the field, in his approach to the game and the way he does things the right way. And that’s all a big positive as well.
Paul Hoynes: Yeah, definitely. So, you know, it’s a good moment for Cleveland, a good moment for Ramirez, and I’m just, it was interesting to hear Chris Antonetti talk, Joe, about what kind of player he thinks Ramirez will be at 38 or 39 years old. And he, he said he couldn’t say for sure, but he’s, you know, he would put, you know, he, he was pretty sure Jose is still going to be a very good player at that age.
Joe Noga: Yeah. And again, all signs are indicating it. We talked, he talked about his toughness, he talked about playing through injuries. That’s something that’s sort of a. Been a hallmark of Jose Ramirez’s career. And yeah, that’s, that’s who he is. And, and we’ve seen that over the last 10 years, and there’s no reason to think that any of that is going to change in the next couple of seasons. So we’ve talked on this podcast before about there’s going to be a decline at some point and how we don’t know what that’s going to look like. But again, a guy who plays the game, like we say, with his hair on fire and plays baseball at the, at 100 miles an hour, runs the bases the way he does, goes all out. It’s going to be an adjustment, but, yeah, I think it’s one that this Franchi franchise is, is willing to sort of build around. And, you know, there’s still, he’s at his peak right now. I don’t think, you know, anybody, anybody can argue that. So, yeah, in the next couple of years, we’ll, we’ll see how that. That turns out. Yeah.
Paul Hoynes: Joe, it was interesting. You know, Nettie was asked, do they think they’ve done enough? Jose was asked to. Does he think the front office has done enough to give him the offense around him, a hitter or two around him that, you know, can give him protection in the upcoming 20? You know, Jose said, you know, we know the, that he had confidence in the young players around him, and he goes we know the restrictions we have in this market. We know what we can and can’t do. And Antonetti echoed that.
Joe Noga: Yeah, and that we, we talked a little bit about why the Guardians hadn’t gone out and maybe necessarily signed a free agent to, to add to the, to the lineup. Antonin reiterated the idea that the young players need that, that Runway, that opportunity, and that there were. He revealed that there were players that they had approached a collect view, but playing time would have been an issue with some of the. These veteran guys. And so they decided to go in the direction of the younger players. And I think you don’t do that unless Jose Ramirez is on board with that idea as well. I think that’s something that they have to have a conversation with him or that they had to have had a conversation with Ramirez about before, really sort of committing to that approach.
Paul Hoynes: Yeah, definitely. It seems like Ramirez is, you know, he’s, he’s happy he’s in. He’s on a team where he wants to be and he, I think he enjoys working with the younger players, you know, encouraging them. You know, he definitely sets an example in the clubhouse and on the field of how to play the game. But this is still a, you know, a gamble in my mind, Joe, with not really, you know, giving him at least one or two veteran hitters in that lineup. And we’ll see how this works. You know, Antonetti said they had success, you know, with fielding young, young lineups in 20, 22, 24. So, you know, keep your fingers crossed. But we know one thing, Ramirez is here for a while.
Joe Noga: Yeah, he’s going to be the one constant remaining through that. You know, Jose spoke about feeling like he’s, you know, in terms of Cleveland being his home, feeling like he’s 50% Dominican, 50% Clevelander. So I asked him, you know, hey, the World Baseball Classic is coming up. You’re going to feel like you’re 50% Clevelander at, that point because, you know, obviously the Dominican Republic team would probably really want him in the lineup. He, he didn’t give any solid indication. He didn’t come out and announced that he’s going to play in the World Baseball Classic. Chris Anton said, you know, that decision rests solely with him, with Ramirez, because he’s not injured. So the team doesn’t really have much of a say whether or not he can play in it. But in the last few hours, we did see Carlos Santana commit to playing on the Dominican Republic team. They announced Brian Bello and Yanier Diaz joining a long list of Some real big stars in the major leagues including Vlad Guerrero, Sir Anthony Dominguez, Sandy Alcantara, even o’, Neill, Cruz and Fernando Tatis already on that team. I’ve got to believe that Jose Ramirez is looking at that roster and going man, I should, I’m, I can’t wait for them to announce it but I’ve got a feeling that he’s probably going to play in that, that tournament.
Paul Hoynes: Joe, it’s, it’s, it’s, you know, you don’t get a, you usually don’t get a no comment from Ramirez but he definitely gave a, gave a no comment when you asked him about the W. So I’m not sure I know, I don’t know what that means in the, I don’t think he’s ever played on in the WBC. If I’m not mistaken, the last one.
Joe Noga: He was coming off of hand surgery in the off season. So he didn’t play. That was one of the reasons that would have been a prime time for him to be on that roster. But he was sidelined by injury. I mean Major League Baseball Network just ranked him as the number one Latin player in all of baseball. He’s the, the fifth highest guy on the, the top 100 list, the highest among any Latin born players. So I’ve got to imagine he’s going to be in that tournament. But yeah, they just haven’t made the announcement. Maybe he’s waiting for the Dominican Federation to announce it on their own before he can say anything about it. I’m sure that’s the case but I’m also pretty certain that within the next couple of days some sort of announcement is going to be coming.
Paul Hoynes: It’s, it seems to me it’s, it’s kind of taken same. He’s taking the same path as he did with the Home Run Derby for years. He never participated in it. Then when he finally did, he seemed to enjoy it, he wanted to go back. So maybe he feels like he is established, he’s got a multi year deal, he’s healthy and he, he can play. He would. And perhaps he’d really, really enjoy playing for his native country.
Joe Noga: Yeah, I think that that last part’s the big part there. He’s healthy, the timing seems like it’s right for him to do this and it doesn’t feel like it’s going to take away from anything with the Guardians and advancing towards their goal of winning a World Series if he steps aside, plays in the tournament, then rejoins the team. But we’ll see as we get A little deeper and closer to the players all reporting. I was just shocked to see him, man. It’s, it’s eight degrees outside here in Cleveland and he’s, he’s up there. He’s in a knit cap and dressed to the nines as always. But kind of, kind of surprising to see a warm weather dude here in Cleveland. But, you know, the contract signing, getting that all taken care of and then probably the next time we see him is going to be out in Goodyear.
Paul Hoynes: Yeah, I would think he’s, he was in town to take the physical to make, you know, okay the deal. Yeah. You know, Jose can say he loves Cleveland as much as he love. He wants to, but I don’t know if he loves Cleveland so much when it’s 8 degrees and there’s 2ft of snow on the ground.
Joe Noga: Yeah, easier, easier to say how much you love Cleveland when you can go back to your compound in the Dominican where It’s pretty, probably 80 degrees right now and, you know, relax by the pool during the, the months of January and February here. Speaking of the months of January and February, if, you know, we, we mentioned truck day at the beginning of this, this broadcast. You know, we talked to Brandon Biller. He said this was the first time in a while the new construction, the new clubhouse setup, it was all done with the, the idea of making truck day and getting all the equipment and everything out there to Arizona that much easier. So really things went really SM morning as we stood there on the loading dock talking to him. Sounds like they’re, they’re ready to go.
Paul Hoynes: This is, you know, this is the time of year where, you know, you can’t wait for baseball. The football season is, is, you know, building to the super bowl and there’s snow on the ground. Just, it’s just time to turn your attention toward the baseball season. The season, the regular season opens March 26. It’s not that far away, Joe, so it’s coming fast. And how long does it take the trucks to good year, do you think?
Joe Noga: For days, they said over the course of just getting out there and traveling the road, they might make some stops. With this weather that hit the Midwest over the last week or so, it might take maybe a little bit longer. But once they get there, they unload the pallets and everything is sort of in place and ready to go. They move their whole operation out to Goodyear for about two, three months before coming back and hitting the road, hitting the ground running with the regular season. It was sort of neat to stand there as we’re talking to Brandon, Tony Amato, Scotty Anderson, they’re all there as well. But the, the palette of golf clubs, all these, these cases of golf clubs were, were being loaded onto the truck. All these cases, all these, you know, bicycles are being rolled by as they’re loading them on the truck. So like everything is going, everything goes out there. The, the, the standard, you know, you know, 1500 baseballs and pallets of water bottles and everything. It’s impressive to see the opener going.
Paul Hoynes: Yeah, they’ve got that down to a science. Those guys have been doing it for years. It’s usually the same drivers too. So yeah, that’s, that’s a well oiled machine.
Joe Noga: All right, Hoynsie, that’s going to wrap up today’s edition of the Cleveland Baseball Talk Podcast. We’ll be back to talk a little bit more about what we learned from Chris Antonetti, Paul Dolan and the rest of the folks there during Jose Ramirez’s contract signing. And maybe some, some deeper insights were revealed as to how this team is looking to build towards the 2026 season. We’ll check up on those tomorrow to wrap up the week.
Paul Hoynes: Good deal.